She can cook, she can teach, she can act and now TV presenter Katy Ashworth is set to fly as she sets off to play Peter Pan in The Alban Arena’s pantomime.

Katy, from Hampshire, graduated with a first-class degree in Drama at the University of Exeter. A former StageCoach Theatre Arts tutor and professional storyteller, Katy now fronts CBeebies’ children’s cookery series, I Can Cook. Aimed at encouraging under-sixs to enjoy being in the kitchen, the series enables children to connect with what’s on their plate and with the world around them.

Katie’s earliest memories of cooking were of helping her mum in the kitchen and thumbing through an old cookery book, which had cartoon illustrations in it. In her early teens her enthusiasm for TV started to shine through.

“When I was 13 I used to make up all kinds of TV shows including my own cookery shows but I never wanted to be a chef,” says Katy. “When I cook I never have time to make up my own recipes. My all time favourite meal is to get friends round and make chips from sweet potatoes and I love making salads with beans and things.”

The I Can Cook kitchen is very tidy, but is it like that behind the scenes?

“It’s fairly controlled, but occasionally, I might say something like where does an egg come from and ask them to do chicken impressions and they get very carried away and knock over the milk.

“One time we were outside getting a cauliflower out of the ground and I said ‘let’s get really muddy’ and out of the corner of my eye I could see the director in slow motion leaping across and saying “noooooooooo!”.

Katy admits to having a bit of a sweet tooth when it comes to favourite foods. She tells me she’s a fan of Willie Harcourt-Cooze, The Chocolate Man.

“I’m such a sucker for a hot chocolate or a cappucino with amaretto syrup. I love mince pies and I love Yorkshire puddings, stuffing and especially the bread sauce.”

I ask Katy what Peter Pan might eat?

“He probably ate what he could forage from the woods – he’d have been picking mushrooms and berries. Like him I eat raw foods such as carrots and tomatoes, the closer to the bone the better.”

Katy is looking forward to playing her first major panto role bar playing Dick Turpin five years ago in Ghana and Aladdin in the CBeebies Christmas panto.

I wonder if she feels she shares any characteristics with Peter Pan?

“I like lots of outdoor things but I’m not a complete tomboy, I’m a bit of both really. I enjoy caving and surfing, hiking and I cycle everywhere. But I can also be really girly, wearing dresses and going dancing.

“My world growing up was completely akin to Peter Pan’s. My dad’s house is next to a common and a big forest and my friend and I used to call it Fern Gully and we’d pretend to be pixies running about.

“Peter Pan’s very cheeky. He can be quite rude and obnoxious but he’s also magical. He’s happy in his own little world. He’s the epitome of freedom.”

Details: The Alban Arena, Civic Centre, St Albans from Dec 10-Jan 2. 01727 844488, www.alban-arena.co.uk